Proceedings of the National Workshop on Beche-De-Mer

Abstract

The term beche-de-mer simply means a
sea-cucumber. The sea-cucumbers constitute an
important marine living resources occurring in
the seas around India. India at present is
earning a foreign exchange of over one crore of
rupees by exporting processed sea-cucumbers.
In the seas around India, nearly 200 species of
sea-cucumbers are known, of which about 75 are
from the shallow waters within twenty metres
depth. Of these a dozen species are of
commercial value. Sea-cucumbers occur in
plenty in the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay, the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the
Lakshadweep. A small scale cottage industry
exists in Tamil Nadu Coast for more than one
thousand years